Farewell, Choo Min Wang

Well, here I go again to reflect on the life of yet another chess friend who passed away yesterday at the age of 84 (born 1939). This time, it is Choo Min Wang, the first national champion in the era of the Malaysian Chess Federation. That would be in 1974. But he had been involved with chess much earlier. In the days before the MCF, there was the Chess Association of Malaysia, and Choo had won the national chess championship in 1958 as a schoolboy and again in 1971. 

The first time I got to know Choo Min Wang was in 1972. The year had hardly begun when news went round the secondary schools that a chess champion would be giving a simultaneous display to some 20 players. Four schools - Chung Ling High School, Methodist Boys School, Penang Free School and St Xavier's Institution - were requested to send representatives to the Penang Library which, at that time, was still located on the top floor of the Penang courthouse building. The display generated some interest and the Straits Echo newspaper gave generous coverage on 11 January 1972:

MR CHOO (back towards camera) concentrating on the chess board of Quah Seng Sun, 17, from the Penang Free School, during his chess demonstration yesterday. Seated in the centre is Mr Teoh Kim Leng, a teacher from the St Xavier's Institution (Primary). - ECHOpic 
(Standing behind Teoh is Ooi Gim Eng from St Xavier's Institution)

PENANG, Sun - Malaysia's chess champion, Mr Choo Min Wang, gave a fine display of the game when he took on 18 opponents at the same time at the Penang Library, this morning.

Mr Choo, who is also the Vice-President of the Chess Association of Malaysia, is a statistician with the Federal Agriculture Marketing Authority in Kuala Lumpur.

Standing in the centre of a 'U' shaped table, he took to task the 18 opponents made up of students and teachers of various schools. The match was more of a demonstration than a challenge.

Mr Choo, who began his chess career while studying at the Victoria Institute in Kuala Lumpur, became the national champion in 1958 while attending the Higher School Certificate class.

He took part in other championships but was not placed and in 1971 he captured the championships again.

While in the University of Malaya, he was sponsored by the University Chess Club to participate in the East Asian Zone championships in Sydney.

In 1963, Mr Choo took part in Jakarta, but could not make it to New Zealand due to lack of funds. However, he played in Singapore in 1969.

In all his matches abroad he did not fair very well but as he puts it, "gained plenty of experience," which has put him in good stead for future competitions.

The next Zone championship will be in Hong Kong, some time this year and he hopes to participate in it.

Asked about the standard of the participants who played against him today, Mr Choo said, "The players are of good standard, and will certainly give the schoolboys in Kuala Lumpur, who have been at the game for a longer period, a hard fight."

Mr Choo also said he was happy that the Malaysian Schools Sports Council had included chess as another item in its sports programme.

That was how our paths first crossed. Two of the PFS players, Khaw Teik Kooi and I, drew our games with him and we were selected to play against Dr Max Euwe, then the President of the World Chess Federation (FIDE), when he briefly visited Kuala Lumpur in April that year.

The Malaysian Chess Federation organised the first national closed championship in October 1974 and Choo Min Wang won it handily ahead of another chess luminary, Dr Foo Lum Choon. Both of them were offered places in the Malaysian team that would compete in the first Asian team chess championship in Penang two months later but they declined to play, citing work obligations.

Choo left government service later to work for one of Tan Chin Nam's companies. For a long time, he was posted to Papua New Guinea. He continued working for Chin Nam after returning, but he was also then a part-time tutor of chess at the Multimedia University in Malacca and Cyberjaya.

Despite being certified as partially blind due to a chronic eye condition, Choo continued to navigate the streets of Kuala Lumpur behind the wheel. There's an instance from about a decade ago when he offered to drop me off at the railway station after the closing ceremony of the Malaysia Chess Festival. The ceremony had wrapped up dangerously close to my train's departure time, and I was anxious about finding a taxi quickly. With unwavering confidence, Choo reassured me, saying, "Don't worry; I can still see." So with little choice and some hesitation, I decided to take him up on his offer. Throughout the journey as he navigated his way through, I found myself gripping the car's interior while anxiously observing the bustling traffic on both sides of us. Obviously, he made it to the station and I am still here today to tell the tale.

Choo's certification as partially blind hardly posed a significant disadvantage to him. It fact, it proved an advantage to him in many ways. If he could still maintain sufficient vision to drive safely, he was more than capable of seeing the chess board and continuing his passion for the game. Year after year, he continued playing in the Merdeka team chess tournaments. Even more impressively, his condition opened up new opportunities as a legally blind chess player. Choo actively competed in various tournaments at the ASEAN Paralympics Games and achieved significant success, including three gold and three silver medals in events held in Manila, Korat and Kuala Lumpur.